Managing people is one of the most challenging parts of running a business. You’re dealing with conflicting personalities, people not doing the right work, and getting bored on the job. If you don’t do the job right, you’ll end up with a poor-performing team that doesn’t get results.
You’re also missing out when you don’t create engagement with your team. Believe it or not, engaged employees are 21% more profitable than those who aren’t.
Employee management isn’t easy to get right, so you need every tip at your disposal to improve your management skills. Below are six common mistakes people make when managing employees.
1. Not Setting Clear Goals
Having goals is one of the most critical parts of running a business. It doesn’t only help you make better decisions, either. A clear goal gives your employees something to work for, making them more engaged with work.
Take some time to figure out where you want to take your business. Do you have revenue goals you want to meet? Or do you want to make a more significant impact in the world and make things better?
Once you clearly define those goals, let your team know what’s happening. If you pick good goals, it will encourage people to do more to move the business forward.
2. Micromanaging Too Much
People don’t enjoy someone looking over their shoulder. They want to feel valued and like you see them as experts in their field. It’s hard to get that feeling when you’re constantly questioned and watched when working.
The problem is that it’s tempting for managers to engage in this tactic. They want to ensure everyone is on task and doing the right things. Even if there isn’t any ill intent in doing this, your team may not feel the same way.
Give your employees room to breathe during the day. You hired them because you believed they could handle the job.
It’s still acceptable to check in now and again. Just be sure not to overextend your monitoring and make people fill like they’re being watched at all times.
3. Not Rewarding Employees
It’s hard to get excited about completing projects when you don’t have much to look forward to. Yes, an excellent salary is a way to encourage people to accomplish more. But that will only get you so far.
You can encourage people to do more during the day by rewarding hard work. You can do this with monetary rewards like gift cards and bonuses. You can also set up employee events and company retreats to reward meeting important company goals.
These events are a great way to give people something to look forward to in the future. On top of that, it gives your team a way to connect on a more personal level. That connection will help people work better together when they get back to work.
4. Failing to Communicate
Communication is one of the most critical parts of managing an efficient team. Even if you have great employees, they can’t get much done if you don’t give them proper instructions and leave them in the dark.
You must refine your communication skills to get more done during the day. Take project management, for instance. You can use project management tools to define your project scope and assign tasks to employees.
You’ll also need to make your employees feel comfortable coming to you about problems. Some employees don’t feel safe talking to management about issues. They feel like if they make waves, it will hurt their career and their chance of keeping their job.
Make sure everyone feels comfortable coming to you about anything. Setting up one-on-one time with every employee is an excellent way of building rapport and making people more comfortable talking to you.
5. Creating an Unsafe Environment
It’s hard to work when you don’t feel safe. Your safety is always on your mind, so you aren’t focused on accomplishing your work.
This isn’t a big deal when you’re in an office. The biggest things to look for in that situation are slip-and-fall situations. However, you can let your office go to ruin and create a poor working environment.
Where this is more important is manual labor jobs. You have to give your team the equipment and training they need to feel safe on the job. On top of that, you need to ensure people know that you’ll take care of them if an accident ever happens.
Find out more here about your responsibilities when it comes to employee injuries.
6. Not Promoting Growth
It’s hard to find people who enjoy being stuck in one place for a long time. Even though you hear a lot about people being lazy, that’s usually not the case. Most people want to do great work in life and create a better life for themselves.
If someone doesn’t feel like they have that opportunity at your company, why should they give it their all? Your employees will last as long as possible and move on to better jobs. That means you’ll always deal with employee recruitment and turnover in your business.
If you want to keep great talent and get more from your team, show them that it leads to a better career. Allow people to train for new skills and apply to better positions. When you show that you care about your employees’ growth, they’ll be more loyal to your company and do better work.
Always Take a Second Look at Your Employee Management Strategy
The world of employee management changes often. It can vary because of differences in the labor market, new employees on your team, and much more. If you stick with one way of doing things, you may fall behind and lose control of your team.
That’s why you must constantly re-evaluate how you handle employee management. If you’re always on the lookout for new tools and management strategies, you’ll have the knowledge required to adapt in the future and manage a productive team.
Head back to the blog to find more business management advice that will help you handle all your business tasks.
